Bitcoin Rebounds Sharply After Gartman Predicts Drop

Having tumbled from record highs near $7600 to $6900 in the last two days, Bitcoin is rebounding this morning, back to $7250 following condemnation from Dennis Gartman and blessing from ‘father of financial futures’ Leo Melamed.

Gartman issued the following statement overnight…

BITCOIN: A Bubble Bursting… Maybe?: Our antipathy toward Bitcoin specifically and toward the crypto-currencies generically is widely known but yesterday’s action does look like a “reversal” to the downside… finally.

And Bitcoin surged…

But on the positive side, Reuters reports that Leo Melamed, 85, said while he was initially skeptical about bitcoin he sees similarities between it and International Monetary Market currency futures trading, which he launched as chairman of the Chicago exchange in 1972.

“The world in the 1970s didn’t look at currency trading as a valid instrument of finance. I too went from not believing (in bitcoin) to wanting to know more,” he said.

He says bitcoin could go beyond being a crypto-currency and represent a new asset class based on blockchain technology.

“My whole life is built abound new technology. I never said no to technology. People who say no to technology are soon dead. I’m still that same guy who believes in, at least examining change. That’s what bitcoin represents,” he also said.

Melamed said he expects major investors to take part in bitcoin futures, which the exchange plans to start by the end of year.

“That’s a very important step for bitcoin’s history… We will regulate, make bitcoin not wild, nor wilder. We’ll tame it into a regular type instrument of trade with rules.”

Finally, we note that as the cryptocurrency has surged in recent months, searches for “buy bitcoin” have overtaken “buy gold” dramatically

“With the U.S. stock market setting fresh all-time highs day after day, it’s no surprise gold prices have retreated,” Adrian Ash, research director at London-based BullionVault, said in a report.

“Some investors are also being distracted by the noise around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Altogether, that’s made interest from new gold investors the weakest since the metal’s half-decade price lows of end-2015.”